Firewall Security Assessment for a
Market leading vendor of Defence
Customer Background
The customer is a market-leading vendor providing solutions to the Ministry of Defence, operating across 25 distributed locations in India. Their infrastructure supports mission-critical environments and requires a high level of cybersecurity assurance and compliance with security best practices.
The organization had deployed Fortinet FortiGate firewalls across all locations to secure their network perimeter and internal infrastructure.
Problem Statement
Although the organization had deployed firewalls across all sites, they lacked a structured and standardized firewall configuration assessment aligned with security best practices.
Key challenges included:
- No centralized security configuration review across all firewalls
- Potential configuration drift between locations
- Limited visibility into security gaps and misconfigurations
- Need for an independent security assessment framework
- Requirement to strengthen the network security posture due to the sensitive nature of defence-related operations
The organization required an expert partner to conduct a comprehensive firewall configuration assessment and identify security improvement opportunities.
Solution Provided
Hexatic designed and executed a structured Firewall Best Practice Assessment Framework tailored for Fortinet environments.
Key activities performed:
Assessment Framework Design
Developed a comprehensive firewall assessment methodology covering security best practices, policy review, configuration validation, and operational controls
Configuration Analysis
Conducted detailed reviews of 25 FortiGate firewall configurations across all locations
Security Policy Review
Analyzed firewall rules, access policies, and segmentation to identify:
â—‹ Overly permissive rules
â—‹ Unused or shadowed policies
â—‹ Policy optimization opportunities
Security Control Validation
Evaluated key security configurations including:
â—‹ Administrative access controls
â—‹ Logging and monitoring configurations
â—‹ Interface and network segmentation
â—‹ Threat protection settings
Gap Identification and Recommendations
Provided a structured report highlighting security gaps, risk levels, and remediation recommendations aligned with firewall security best practices.
Results
The assessment enabled the organization to significantly improve its security posture.
Key outcomes included:
- Improved network security posture across all 25 locations
- Identification and remediation of critical configuration gaps
- Standardization of firewall configuration practices
- Enhanced visibility into security policies and controls
- Strengthened protection for defence-related infrastructure
The engagement helped the organization establish a repeatable firewall security governance model to maintain a consistent and secure configuration baseline across their distributed infrastructure.